Shall We Dance - Ted Heath

Let's Face The Music

Shall We Dance
Ted Heath And His Music
London PS148
1959

From the back cover: Ted Heath entered the music world 45 years ago when his father taught him the tenor horn. At seven Ted was playing in band contests and at 12 he switched to the trombone. Returning from service in World War I, Ted had a couple of lean years till his luck changed and Jack Hylton gave him a job. After this Ted worked his way through most of Britain's top bands and held the trombone chair on many record sessions with top American stars.

In 1942 Ted became fired with the idea of having a band of his own. It all came about when he heard Glenn Miller's American Band of the AEF, then stationed in Britain. The forceful swing and full-bodied brass sound so fascinated him that he decided to form a band which would play this kind of music he believed in.

Ted Heath and his Music were heard for the first time on a BBC broadcast in 1942, but not until the war ended could Ted really think about building up a regular orchestra. In 1945 the American trumpet player and arranger, Toots Camarata came to Britain as musical director of the film "London Town." Camarata commissioned Heath to provide the music for the film and in this way the band achieved a degree of permanence. When the film was completed Ted Heath's orchestra began touring and broadcasting regularly.

A small but fanatical following quickly sprang up; the band started coming top in the polls run by British musical papers; yet the music was still too advanced for most of the general public. But Ted refused to compromise; he preferred to wait for the public to catch up with his ideas. That they have now done so is reflected in the present-day sales of Ted Heath's records and the crowds which flock to see the band wherever it appears. And Ted Heath's music is just as popular on the other side of the Atlantic as it is in Britain, as provided by the heavy demand for his records in the United States and the enormous success of his two American tours.

From Billboard - June 8, 1959: The well-known British orkster hews a pretty sedate line in this set of sides, designed mainly for dancing rather than swinging. Heath's band as usual, sounds crisp and interesting but here there is little resort to extended improvising or other appeals to the jazz buff. This is just good, solid, big band dance stuff nicely recorded in stereo. Some jock will find spinnable sides here.

Dancing In The Dark
I Could Have Danced All Night
Dancing With My Shadow
The Love Dance
Shall We Dance
Let's Face The Music
Dancing Time
Ten Cents A Dance
Dancing With Tears In My Eyes
Dance Ballerina Dance
All You Want To Do Is Dance
I Won't Dance

Red Roses For A Blue Lady

Ida

Red Roses For A Blue Lady
Crown Records CST 461
1965

Red Roses For A Blue Lady
Lonesome Road
Ida
Virginny
In My Merry Oldsmobile
Wait Till The Sun Shines Nellie
Swanee River
Fascination
I Love You Truly

Dance Craze

Rock 'N Roll

Dance Craze
Capitol Records DT 927

The Bunny Hop - Ray Anthony
Charleston - Pee Wee Hunt
Rock 'N Roll (The Bit Twist) - Plas Johnson
Calypso (Shake Shake Señora) - Lord Flea
The Creep - Stan Kenton
Balboa (Mad About The Boy) - Billy May
Waltz (The Petite Waltz) - Guy Lombardo
The Hokey Pokey - Ray Anthony
Bop (Let's Bop) - Big Dave
Tango (Donkey Tango) - Nelson Riddle
Black Bottom (The Varsity Drag) - Pee Wee Hunt

Latino! - Perez Prado

Latino

Latino!
Perez Prado
Photo: Garrett-Howard
RCA Camden CAL 547
1961

Ni Hablar
La Chula Linda
Que Te Parece Cholito
La Cocaleca
Latino
Anabacoa
Gateando
Beautiful Margaret
Silbando Mambo
Caballo Negro
Mona Lisa
Mambo Universitario

Memory Time - Little Roy Wiggins

It's A Sin

Memory Time
Little Roy Wiggins
Eddie Arnold's Original Steel Guitarist
Produced by Tommy Hill
Art Work: James Coleman
Photography: Tommy Hill Jr.
Recorded at Hilltop Studio
Engineer: Jack Linneman
Power Pad PO #226 STEREO
Distributed by Gusto Records, Inc.

From the back cover: This album is designed to bring back memories of a bygone era, those wonderful years of the forties and fifties, when country music meant exactly that, country. I had the distinct pleasure of playing the steel guitar with Eddy Arnold, who has sold over 75,000,000 records. During my 25 years with Eddy, we recorded such songs as "I'll Hold You In My Heart," "Molly, Darling Anytime," "Bouquet Of Roses," "Cattle Call," and all the songs in this album, plus many, many more.

I now own a music store at 427 Broadway, here in Nashville, Tenn. called Little Roy Wiggin's Music City. It's located around the corner from the Grand Ol' Opry, so many of our customers are those wonderful country music fans that come to see the Opry.

Bouquet Of Roses
One Kiss To Many
Molly Darling
Who At My Door Is Standing
It's A Sin
I Walk Alone
I'll Hold You In My Heart
Anytime
Cattle Call
I'm Throwing Rice
Rocking Alone In An Old Rocking Chair
Mama Please Stay Home With Me

The Music Of Cole Porter - George Shearing & Barry Tuckwell

Easy To Love

George Shearing & Barry Tuckwell
Play The Music Of Cole Porter
All arrangements by George Shearing.
Special thanks to Frank Metis for his tremendous assistance in the orchestration and transcription of Mr. Shearing's arrangements.
Conductor Mike Renzi
Produced by Carl E. Jefferson
Assistant Producer: Chris Long
Recorded and Remixed at Penny Lane Studios, New York City, January 1986
Recording Engineer: Ed Trabnaco
Assistant Engineer: Phil Edwards
Mastered by George Horn
Liner Photographs: Tom Copi and Fritz Curzon
Art Direction and Illustration: Tom Burgess
Concord Concerto CC-2010
1986

From the back cover: I am sure there are those of you who are wondering how it comes about that a classical French horn player gets together with a jazz pianist for the purpose of recording an album. In brief explanation, I have long been a great fan of Barry Tuckwell. I love to hear him play Mozart or just about anything else in the classical repertorie. But it wasn't too long ago that I heard him playing a number of tunes by Jerome Kern. I got an idea then and hoped that I could bring it to fruition sooner than later.

In August of 1984, my wife and I were in Salzburg, Austria for the summer music festival. We attended an orchestral concert with Barry as soloist in a Mozart horn concerto. We were so overwhelmed by his masterful artistry that we couldn't get up the courage to go back and introduce ourselves.

In August of 1985, I was to appear with the London Symphony in a Pops concert conducted by John Dankworth. During the flight to London, I learned that Barry Tuckwell was also appearing on the program.

While sitting in my dressing room just before the start of the concert, I heard the sounds of a horn player warming up. Those sounds were emanating from the dressing room next door. Being a very reserved Englishman, it didn't bother me one bit to knock on Barry Tuckwell's door. When he opened it I said that I didn't want to interrupt him while he was warming up his chops but that I did want to meet him because I had been a fan for so long.

We started to talk and I said, "I have an idea, If an encore is needed, why don't we combine forces in a rendition of "Long Ago And Far Away"? I've heard you play it." He hesitated a bit and then said, "Oh George, I don't even know if I remember the tune." So, we went to my dressing room where there was a piano and we rehearsed it a little bit until it was time for me to go on. I asked my bass player to hum the second sixteen bars to him while I was on stage.

We did, indeed, do it as an encore. I am happy to report that when the last note had died away, there was a second or two of silence and then the place burst apart with applause. (P.S. This resulted in much conversation between Mr. and Mrs. Barry Tuckwell and Mr. and Mrs. George Shearing.)

Two night later found the Shearings at the Tuckwell's delightful London home for dinner. I was seated at one end of the dining room table and Barry at the other. And as we sat down, Barry and I said almost simultaneously, "I want to do an album together," What you are hearing or about to hear is the result.

The sales pitch to Carl Jefferson, president of Concord Records, was not difficult at all. He had wanted me to record an album with a horn for a long time. I took full responsibility for the French horn parts hoping that I would not be asking the impossible. Of anyone else, I probably would have been asking the impossible. But no of Barry Tuckwell. What a joy to work with a man like Barry. – George Shearing

Concentrate On You
Everything I Love
I've Got You Under My Skin
Easy To Love
In The Still Of The Night
Every time We Say Goodbye
But In The Morning
So In Love
After You
All Through The Night
Do I Love You?

The Light Fantastic - Andre Previn

A Foggy Day

The Light Fantastic
A Tribute To Fred AstaireThe Andre Previn Trio
With Red Mitchell and Frankie Capp
Columbia STEREO CS 8688
1962

From the back cover: Barely past thirty years old, Andre Previn is a phenomenon in the music world. He is equally adept as arranger, composer, conductor, concert pianist and jazzman. He became a musical director at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer at nineteen. In sixteen years he has been responsible for the music in about thirty-five films, including such distinguished scores as "Bad Day At Black Rock" and "Elmer Gantry." In 1959 he received an Academy Award for his scoring of "Gigi"; the following year he received a second Oscar for his scoring of "Porgy And Bess." According to Time Magazine, "His jazz is all his own; a fanciful, highly individualistic style, characterized by kaleidoscopic rhythmic shifts, trip-hammered treble runs and a discreetly swinging left hand punctuated by sudden stops and breaks." Previn has somehow found time to compose a symphony, a quantity of piano music and some chamber works. At present he is collaborating with his wife Dory on a musical for Broadway.

From Billboard - November 17, 1962: This album is actually a sort of jazz-flavored tribute to one of Andre Previn's idols – dancer-actor Fred Astaire. The tunes are all numbers which career in Broadway and movie musicals, a Lovely Day," "A Foggy Day," "A Fine Romance," etc. The style is typically Previn, and the result highly listenable.

Nice Work If You Can Get It
Isn't This A Lovely Day
I Used To Be Color Blind
A Foggy Day
Not My Girl
Light Fantastic
A Fine Romance
So Near And Yet So Far
Puttin' On The Ritz
Facinatin' Rhythm

Let's Face The Music And Dance - Nelson Riddle

I Get Along Without You Very Well

Let's Face The Music And Dance
Nelson Riddle and His Orchestra
Pickwick/33 Records PC-3036
A Product of Pickwick International, Inc.
1966

Let's Face The Music
Just One Of Those Things
You Do Something To Me
You Are My Lucky Star
I Get Along Without You Very Well
Let's Do It
I Love Paris
You Leave Me Breathless
For All We Know
Jeannie I Dream Of Lilac Time

Swingin' Southern Stye - Glen Gray

Southland Shuffle

Swingin' Southern Style
Glen Gray and The Casa Loma Orchestra
Produced by Dave Cavanaugh and Tom Morgan
Capitol Records ST 1400
1960

From the back cover: This fine new musical idea stemmed not only from a blending of instrumental styles, but from a combination of creative talents. In developing the scores, Glen Gray and producers Dave Cavanaugh and Tom Morgan called on three top arrangers to work with them: Van Alexander, Jack Marshall and Larry Wagner. And the inspired result of their collaborative effort is this album of music that swings in a happy new way – Southern Style!

From Billboard - July 11, 1960: Here's a group of robust, big-band stylings, based along classic Dixie patterns, except it's nicely modernized with a swinging beat, and a solid ensemble sound. The Glen Gray studio compliment includes "Milenberg Joys," "Panama" and "That's A Plenty," in the entertaining program. It all has a fresh sound and the recording job is tops. A lot of good listening here.

Milenberg Joys
Yessir, That's My Baby
Riverboat Shuffle
Stars And Stripes Forever
Panama
Southland Shuffle
That's A Plenty
Cotton Belt Cannonball
Columbia, Gem Of The Ocean
Carolina In The Morning
Dixie
Cajun Shout

Breakfast Dance And Barbecue - Count Basie & Joe Williams

5 O'Clock In The  Morning

Breakfast Dance And Barbecue
Count Basie and His Orchestra featuring Joe Williams
Produced by Teddy Reig
Engineered by Bill Scripps & Tory Brainard
Liner Notes by Bud Katzel
Roulette Birdland R 52028

Personnel:
Piano: Count Basie
Vocalist: Joe Willams
Guitar: Freddy Green
Drums: Sonny Payne
Bass: Eddie Jones, Jr.
Trumpets: Harry 'Sweets' Edison, Thad Jones, Joe Newman, Wendell Cully and Snooky Young
Trombones: Henry Coker, Ben Powell and Al Grey
Saxophones: Marshall Royal, Frank Wess, Frank Foster, Willie Mitchell and Charile Fowlkes

From the back cover: It was 2 a.m., in the grand ballroom of the luxurious American Hotel in Miami. There were 2,500 members of the radio and television fraternity known as disc-jockeys, some 500 members of the recording industry and assorted guests present. Suddenly, with unbelievable dispatch, a dance floor was cleared, the spareribs were dished out, the bottles opened, the glasses filled and their contents emptied and Count Basie and his orchestra opened up...

It was a night to remember, it was a morning that those who were present will never forget. It was a bash to end all bashes. It was a breakfast dance and barbecue feted by Roulette Records in honor of America's disc-jockeys at their second annual convention. It was all these things and one thing more; it was the morning Count Basie and the greatest big band jazz aggregation ever assembled cast a hypnotic spell over 3,000 or more stunned guests.

This album is the on-the-spot recorded documentation of that history making morning of May 31st 1959. Now you can hear the mesmerizing sounds that Basie and his men weaved that kept the guests enthralled for some five hours. Now you can listen to that morning when Thad Jones on trumpet gave out with "Counter Block" and Snooky Young's trumpet held the crowd spellbound with "Let's Have A Taste." Here is that moment of glory when Harry 'Sweets' Edison who played trumpet with Basie for seventeen years, was reunited once again with the Count to relieve every note of the maestro's jazz classic "One O'Clock Jump."

Listen too, if you will, to that time on the 31st when darkness had fled the Miami sky and the sun began to rise and the Basie touch was put to Duke Ellington's "In A Mellow Tone"; also the shining minutes of early morning when the master of the blues, Joe Williams, held sway over the crowds wailing "Hallelujah, I Love Her So." It was now 5:00 a.m. and the ham and eggs and hot coffee were served and still the Basie Band played on and still the unyielding crowd, refusing to be denied, called for more...

In the many years since he came up from Kansas City, "the kids from Red Bank" has been the object of much glorification. Time and time again tribute has been paid to this man and deservedly so. Truly, in all this time no greater honor was bestowed upon him and his band than on the morning of May 31st. The crowd that had gathered that night had, prior to Basie's appearance, been treated to more than five hours of entertainment. They had sat a long time and were getting noisy and restless. Any audience sitting that length of time would have had enough for one night and it would not have been at all surprising if en masse they would have exited. It just didn't happen. When the Count and his band began to play, it seemed as though the crowd had suddenly been revived. The full-force of the band's sound acted like a shot of adrenaline and that same crowd not only sat through another five hours, but they got up and dance! This is a once-in-a-lifetime tribute. It came not from the critics or the jazz buff or supposed hipsters in the know. This was a tribute from the people, the people who stayed on and on and on into the wee hours of the morning.

Basie and his boy have been given a night off from their engagement at the Birdland nightclub in New York City to make this one-night appearance. It was now 7:00 a.m. and it was only because the band had to catch a plane back to Birdland to finish out their gig that inevitably brought the proceedings to an end. As the musicians filed off the bandstand and the photographer from Dude Magazine, which had exclusive coverage of the bash, was popping his last bulbs, everyone seems to sense that this had not been an ordinary affair. The morning of May 31st was a time they would talk about again and again.

Fortunately, we can do more than talk about it, we can hear it all in this set. All of the excitement, all of the crowds' enthusiasm, elation and applause have been etched here. Happily too, all of the resounding sounds that shook the rafters of that ballroom have also been faithfully captured. Where were you on the morning of May 31st, 1959? If you were in Miami in the grand ballroom of the Americana you lived through a momentous time in jazz. If you were unlucky to have been somewhere else, all is not lost for here it is put together for you in an album as unforgettable as that historic morning.

In A Mellow Tone
5 O'Clock In The Morning
Counter Block
Who Me
Let's Have A Taste
Moten Swing
Hallelujah, I Love Her So
One O'Clock Jump